2 posts from April 2, 2014

April 02, 2014

Right tackle Jason Fox, who is visiting the Dolphins today, has signed a one-year deal with the team, according to a league source. ProFootballTalk.com was the first to report the signing. I don't expect this will be much more than a minimum salary type addition.

[Update 1:44: The Dolphins have confirmed the signing.]

[Update 1:51: An NFL source tells me Fox got $795,000.]

Meanwhile, the previous blog discussed how the Dolphins are not in the market for high-end wide receiver but will be adding receivers for the bottom of the roster, for depth, for special teams possibilities and he will preferrably be a bigger body type.

Well, the Dolphins have agreed to terms with receiver Kevin Cone, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Cone is 6-2 and 216. He is what former Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland would have termed an acorn. Despite four years of experience, Cone has one career reception.

He has played 28 career games but most of the work has come on special teams.

The Dolphins are bringing in former Detroit Lions right tackle Jason Fox, formerly a University of Miami standout, for a visit, according to a league source.

The idea of Fox is to add a veteran presence and competition for the right tackle spot that currently has no clear cut starter at the position. If all else fails, Fox offers depth for the position, assuming he signs.

Fox, 25, has started only three games in his four NFL seasons.

This is not the right tackle answer for the Dolphins. This would be a move to shore up depth.

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The Dolphins have the second-most salary cap space in the AFC East this morning with $16,680,752. They have only 58 players under contract and that represents the fewest players under contract of any team in the NFL.

But the interesting thing is the players the Dolphins have under contract generally represent the core of the 2014 team.

Said another way, if you look at the Dolphins current roster, you can pluck out the starter or potential starter at every position except only two -- right tackle and one of the guard spots. And even at guard, the Dolphins have players on the roster such as Dallas Thomas, Nate Garner and Sam Brenner, who will likely get an opportunity to compete for the starting job.

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I care about Dolphins fans. I work for Dolphins fans.

And so I try to keep a finger on the pulse of what you're talking about and one thing that I simply cannot understand is the constant conversation about the wide receiver position.

It seems, based on some of what I've heard, that Dolphins fans think the team should add more wide receiver talent. And I'm talking serious talent.

When DeSean Jackson was cut by Philadelphia last week, fans asked me on twitter about the chances the Dolphins would chase him. A couple of bigtime Dolphins fans were discussing picking a wide receiver in the first round on twitter this morning.

I. Do. Not. Get. It.

The Dolphins wide receiver corps may indeed get three or four young players infused into it before the offseason is over. But those players will be back-of-the-roster possibilities.

I doubt seriously it will be a first-round pick.

Why?

Mike Wallace.

Brian Hartline.

Brandon Gibson.

Rishard Matthews.

Those are your four receivers on game day. And to answer the questions before they arise, Wallace is not being traded according to club sources, Hartline will be ready for the offseason camps after suffering a knee injury in the season-finale, and Gibson is on schedule to be recovered by the start of the regular season, according to a source, after blowing out a knee at New England last October.

So where is there room for a first-round pick? With the money committed to Wallace, Hartline and Gibson, where is the logic in investing more money in a player in free agency when the right tackle spot is bare and the tight end spot needs depth?

The Dolphins would like to add a bigger receiver type. Most of their receivers, outside of Armon Binns, are on the midsize body type. They'd like to add a bigger target receiver. But not at a high price. Not early in the draft, barring the dropping of Mike Evans to No. 19.

Wide receiver is a spotlight position. So I understand the attention. But the Dolphins seem to have the spotlight position covered, for now.